This blog is dedicated to keep all of my thoughts and ideas organized.

Monthly Archives: June 2016

My school year ended on Friday and as I sit here Sunday night (when my teaching week usually begins) I am reflecting on my year.

I has been an interesting year. My “year” began last July at TMC15. I say that it started at TMC15 because that has shaped many of the things that I did this year. I was completely rejuvenated with TMC and the ideas generated there.

Twitter – What a wonder community and generator of ideas. So much food for thought and so many ideas, many of which I used in my classroom.

Desmos – I have always been a big fan of Desmos and attending TMC sessions last summer and having Eli Luberoff come to Montana to speak at our MCTM annual conference in October was amazing. I presented workshops on using Desmos in the classroom at the last three MCTM annual conferences and it is constantly changing for the better. This year Desmos Activity Builder was a great addition to my classroom

New textbook – This maybe wasn’t such a positive thing. I wanted to give the textbook a good shot, so I tried to use it the way the author intended. Then I spent a lot of time creating things to keep the students interested and energized. Now I know that I have some work to do to readjust for next year.

I tried Standards Based Grading (actually Objective Based Grading) and was pleased with it, but I need to refine my system.

I used Google Classroom several times this year and discovered its potential.

I did not give enough positive feedback to my students. This is a goal mine every year and I think I slipped a bit this year.

OK…to make improvements for next year.

I am attending TMC16 and MCubed (Montana version of TMC) this summer. I am co-presenting “5 Practices” at TMC and Desmos at MCubed. I am looking forward to getting more great ideas from both of them.

My colleagues and I will work this summer to put a better plan together to create thinkers and to make math more interesting and pertinent.

My daughter (also a math teacher) and I are going to build two “backward bicycles” to use in our respective schools. Thanks to Destin at @smartereveryday and Sara @saravdwerf . We really need to teach our students about learning and perseverance.